


Distraction

by thechosenpen



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, its a bit of both tbh, post-Words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-19
Updated: 2014-09-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 00:15:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2328263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thechosenpen/pseuds/thechosenpen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after Words. What probably happened amirite. Most likely to be canonballed soon.</p><p>"Well, maybe you need to distract yourself. There’s not much you can do for now, so maybe you need to just do something else.”</p><p>“Wrong. The correct answer was ‘Well Beatrice don’t worry I’m off to kill Claudio.’ Next answer.” Beatrice shoots back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Distraction

 

“Watch your back fuckface. I am coming for you, sincerely Beatrice Duke.” Beatrice sends one last furious glare at the camera. There is a tense silence as Beatrice enters a staring contest with the camera and Benedick holds a staring contest with the side of Beatrice’s face. This level of anger is new to him. He has seen Beatrice cross plenty of times, usually at him, but this is new. This anger is slightly unhinged and it is all passion and vengeance. This level of rage is also kind of hot on Beatrice but now is not the time to think about that. 

 

Ben pulls his eyes away from Beatrice’s face and notices the red light of the camera flashing back at them. Finally he leans forward quietly to switch the camera off, his arm accidentally brushing against Beatrice’s. The unexpected touch seems to shake Beatrice out of her intense rage and when she turns to look at him he watches her expression slip into one of heartache and a hint of confusion. Ben leans back in his chair and Beatrice drops her gaze down to the floor, letting out a long sigh. 

 

“Feel better now Love?” Ben asks, and there is no bite to his question. Beatrice doesn’t look at him as she shakes her head. Ben stays quiet as Beatrice eases herself out of the chair and flops back onto his bed. She shifts herself up until she is resting up against the headboard, her knees drawn up near her chin. She looks incredibly vulnerable right now and Ben realises just how long it has been since they have been able to be this relaxed around each other. They haven’t really talked since they were fourteen and Beatrice decided to hate him for reasons he still doesn’t fully understand. Ever since she returned to town it has been all snark and slightly vicious banter between the two of them. Ben is now realising that perhaps it has been flirting all this time, but he’s glad that they seem to have evolved past that. They’re almost friends now, aren’t they? 

 

Ben isn’t really one hundred percent sure what they are now. He just knows that right now Beatrice is sitting on his bed and she is looking at him without any of the usual malice in her eyes. 

 

“I just…I don’t know what to do now. What am I supposed to do? I can’t stand just sitting around thinking about it all. It’s going to drive me insane,” Beatrice huffs suddenly. She bumps her head back against the wall behind the bed in frustration, her hands flying up to cover her face. 

 

Ben sits in silence for a second, unsure of what to do too. He’s really not used to girls sitting on his bed in distress. Or girls on his bed in general if he’s being honest. But this is Beatrice, lovely slightly terrifying Beatrice and right now she needs his help. For the first time in a long time he wants to help her. He needs to help her. He gets up off his chair and awkwardly eases himself onto the edge of the bed, almost sitting on Beatrice’s toes by accident. Off to a great start there. 

 

“Well, maybe you need to distract yourself. There’s not much you can do for now, so maybe you need to just do something else, like-.” Ben is about to start spouting off possible distractions when he is cut off.

 

“Wrong Dickface. The correct answer was ‘Well Beatrice don’t worry I’m off to kill Claudio.’ Next answer.” Beatrice shoots back, her hands still covering her face and muffling her voice slightly. It isn’t muffled enough to cover the tiny crack in her tone that slips out though.

 

Ben pauses and studies Beatrice as he tries to think of how to respond. “Does he really deserve that kind of revenge though?” He asks finally. It probably isn’t the best response but it slips out anyway. Beatrice tenses up even more, if that’s even possible at this point. She pulls her hands away from her face, revealing the return of the murderous expression. It’s about ten times scarier when it’s aimed at him. 

 

“Yes. We’ve been through this. He is the worst kind of person and he deserve the worst kind of pain for what he’s done.” Beatrice’s words are cutting, full of bitterness and fury. “And anyone who sides with him deserves the same.” Beatrice ends with a particularly angry glare at Ben as if daring him to side with Claudio. 

 

Ben shakes his head hurriedly and moves so that he is sitting next to Beatrice on the bed. “No, I concur wholeheartedly. You know I’m on your side here. I just don’t know if murder is the best option. Maybe we should look at social destruction or a humiliating prank or some other plan of revenge before we go straight to murder.”

 

“Oh so you only save murders for birds then?” Beatrice asks snidely, but she is shifting to make room for him next to her. They’re sitting side by side now, their arms touching. It’s comfortable and as each second passes Ben can feel a tiny bit of Beatrice’s tension slipping away. Good. 

 

Ben lets out a huff of laughter at her remark and he catches Beatrice’s mouth turn up slightly too. They sit in silence for a moment and Beatrice seems to be calming down slightly, but her body is still tense as it leans against Ben’s. 

 

“So no murder then.” Beatrice says finally. “What’s your great plan then?” She turns slightly to look up at him. 

 

“How about we watch a movie or something? I have some episodes of Doctor Who on my laptop,” Ben suggests. 

 

“Some episodes? What, did you delete a series?”

 

“Fine. I have the entire collection of Doctor Who on my laptop. Was that better? You knew what I meant.” Ben’s hands begin flailing slightly, knocking Beatrice’s knees as he talks. 

 

Beatrice rolls her eyes, a hint of what Ben thinks could be affection in them. “You dork. Just why would you say ‘some’ when we both know you have every episode? You even have all the classic episodes there. It’s just a matter of being honest.”

 

“I was generalising.” Ben huffs. 

 

“You were lying. Now get your laptop and distract me with sonic screwdrivers.” Beatrice gives Ben a small shove. The rage from before has disappeared in her eyes, now replaced with a small spark of life again. 

 

Ben waggles his eyebrows at her as he clamours off the bed to find his laptop under a pile of mess on the floor. “If you want my sonic screwdriver all you  have to do is ask, Love.”

 

“You’re the worst,” Beatrice groans as she rolls over on the bed, covering her face in his pillow, but Ben hears the laughter in her voice as he climbs back onto the right side of the bed, laptop tucked under his arm.

 

A few minutes later they are sitting side by side on the bed again, both fully absorbed in Ten and Donna’s adventures, just wacky enough to distract them both from their own chaos. Ben occasionally spurts out a ‘fun fact’ about The Doctor, like Beatrice doesn’t already know, but for the most part they watch in silence. It isn’t until half way through their fourth episode that Ben realises Beatrice seems to have fallen asleep. Somehow during their mini marathon they both seem to have shifted until Beatrice ended up half curled up next to him, her head resting on Ben’s shoulder. 

 

Ben watches Beatrice for a few moments. Not in a creepy sparkly vampire way, just in a _‘when did we stop hating each other and how are you so cute when you sleep’_ kind of way. Suddenly Ben wishes she was awake because all he wants to do is confess his feelings right now. The urge to tell her has been particularly strong over the last few weeks and after watching her in her beautiful murderous rage today, Ben is surprised he has managed to restrain himself. The words are on the tip of his tongue now and he wonders if telling her while she’s asleep counts. He supposes maybe it’s a good way to test it out. If it feels weird or wrong to say then at least she won’t have heard him.  And if he tells her now, she can’t laugh back in his face.

 

The thought of her rejection is something that terrifies Ben. He isn’t used to letting himself get attached to people. He switches friends too often for that to happen, and it’s one of the reasons he has avoided relationships. But maybe with Beatrice things could be different.

 

“Hey, so uh…I don’t think I like anyone as much as I like you Beatrice Duke. I might even love you.” he says finally, keeping his voice soft to avoid waking her. It feels good to finally say it. Ben watches as Beatrice sleeps quietly next to him, and he thinks maybe one day he’ll let her hear his confession. 

 

Ben closes his eyes, prepared to doze off himself when he hears a mumble from his left.

 

“Ditto, you dork.”

**Author's Note:**

> I literally typed this up and did a quick checkover before posting so apologies for any mistakes! This is my first fic in a while, and my first NMTD fic so hopefully it isn't too awful and I hope you enjoyed it!


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